Change of Heart 05 - Forging the Future Read Free Page A

didn’t appear convinced, and that was the scariest part. I wanted nothing to do with the man, and he was repulsed by the idea of a male mate, but still, she was scared because I was a kind of cat that was a ray-ah, and there was apparently power in my touch. The whole thing seemed far-fetched.
    Reaching out, I slipped my hand around the sheseru’s forearm. While it still hurt, the pain wasn’t quite so bad when I did the touching. He immediately turned and gifted me with a warm smile.
    “May I ask just a few questions?” I ventured.
    “Anything, my ray-ah.”
    “That word you’re using for true-mate, is that like yareah with the y and the a taken off?”
    “It is.”
    Now I could see the word in my head. “And I know that yareah is mate, and you said that a reah is a true-mate?”
    “Yes. Reahs are very rare, and only a handful of semels are ever gifted with one. Most are mated just as normal people are, meeting their yareahs and falling in love, but your semel, he is semel-re, as he has you.”
    I nodded.
    “Reah means ‘home of the soul,’ where the semel goes for sanctuary. I can only imagine how much your semel is missing you.”
    Smiling quickly, I said, “I hope so,” even as my heart tripped.
    He was telling me there could be a man, my mate, somewhere out there wanting me, missing me? That was too much to hope for.
    He scowled. “There’s no question. A true-mated pair should never be parted.”
    “And the mark this semel gave me?”
    “A semel only marks his true-mate. Any other, yareah or simply chosen mate, doesn’t receive one. For a semel to claim one who isn’t their true-mate in that manner would cause great pain and, perhaps from the loss of blood, even death. I couldn’t imagine a cat other than a sheseru even being able to bear such.”
    I wondered if any semel had ever tried.
    “Jim,” Alaine said, reaching for me.
    Again his yareah deflected his hand.
    “I wouldn’t take a man to my bed,” Alaine promised, visibly tired of being doubted, but moving to cup her face gently in his hands. “I’m not gay. You know that.”
    “Yes,” she said, searching his face. “I do. I simply ask that you keep your distance until we know the truth about the reah.”
    “Agreed.”
    “And you should not share what he is with others,” she continued, “as they will perhaps come to challenge you to take possession of the reah, and as you’re honor bound to protect him until his semel comes to claim him or other arrangements are made… you’ll be constantly fighting.”
    “That’s good counsel.” He released her and turned back to his sheseru, who had risen to stand beside me, and his sylvan. “Only the small group of us here in this room needs to know about the reah. Anyone else, Jim is merely the newest member of our tribe.”
    All the others consented to keep my identity a secret.
    “Jim,” Alaine said, his attention back on me. “With this discovery, I really don’t think you’ll be waiting long to know who you are. Even though I’ve never been to a Feast of the Valley or to Sobek, I can’t imagine that there is more than one male reah out there. I’m sure your mate, or your mate’s tribe, will come forward to claim you very quickly once I send an addendum to Domin Thorne.”
    “Thank you,” I said, trying to squash down the hope inside of me before it ate me up. I could not pin all my hopes on something that might not be true.
    He coughed softly. “In the meantime, as you are another semel’s mate and are a guest in my territory, I am bound by the rules of honor to keep you from harm.”
    “Of course,” I agreed, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. It was imperative that I get out of the room and away from him and his yareah who hated me, so if saying yes to protection I didn’t need would do it, I’d accept.
    “So I have to insist that you consent to my protection.”
    “Yes, semel,” I said. I didn’t use the “my” since he was clearly not.